Is 60 amp electrical service enough for high end tube system

Keep in mind there is a reason your house was originally equipped with a 60-amp service. First off that is 60 amps @ 220volts, which means you have 120 amps at 120 volts. All you may need to run your system is 1 20 amp dedicated circuit of which you may only actually draw 10 amps. You will be amazed what that alone can do for a small to moderate sized system.

I recommend a new service when the old one just won't take any more, or is not functioning properly. Generally speaking most breaker boxes could handle one more circuit for audio no questions asked.

If you ever start tripping breakers especially the main then I would say have it checked out by a professional electrician.

Naturally I recommend you have any and all electrical work preformed by a professional.

I believe most new homes (last 15 years) come standard with a 200-amp service. In your music room you probably only need one or two dedicated 20 amp circuits. One for the amp and some people use the second for the front end and/or a third dedicated 20-amp circuit for digital.

i would say bring an electrition over and put him to work. you do need a 200 amp box i would think. your sound room should have 20 amp lines for each amp . and 20 amps for your preamp. you can never have enough juice.

Hard to give you a definite answer without knowing all the specifics. From a design standpoint your system is capable of supporting 10,550 watts continuously and may be adequate if there are no major electrical appliances connected such as a range or dryer.

Typical problems with 60 amp services usually involve the lack of adequate branch circuits. This usually is most indicated by blown fuses or tripped circuit breakers.

I would recommend for serious jazz listening a least one dedicated line for your audio components. This of course requires that the existing service have the ability to add the needed line(s). Even if your service appears full, oftentimes an auxilliary box can be added via existing expansion lugs. You may not need a full service upgrade if expansion lugs are available.

As far as costs are concerned, in the midwest full electrical service upgrades start around $2000 for the very simplest and usually go much higher.

A reputable and knowledgeable electrical contractor is really your best resource to answer your questions.

Hey Kirk, not all of us own 1200 pound, 4 chassis, 800 watt Tube Research Labs amps! I've got a 100 Watt sub panel on the back wall of my listening room, maybe that's enough panel for my 100 Watt TRL Mono-blocks?

I am sure the service is enough for the stereo, but is it enough for the stove and dryer. A lot of electric stoves have 40 - 50 amp circuits and would be a major drain on your service. A good starting point to determine if the service is up to snuff is to determine if the lights dim when turning on various electrical loads. In an old house just printing a page on my laser printer made the lights flicker. I had to get that problem fixed!

If your oven, dryer, water heater, and furnace, and range are gas, it's enough. Upgrading the main panel and lines to the power pole is not expensive, and will add value to your house. Grounded outlets are important. Two prong outlets can be grounded individually by running groung wire to a grounded water pipe.

As stated above, a 60 amp main is plenty enough for stereo but is it really adequate for the whole house? Look at your heavy loads: electric stove, dryer or water heater? Air conditioning? Large refrig. &/or freezer? Large fans or water pumps, that sort of thing. Then determine your voltage coming into the distribution panel when many (not necessarily all) of your loads are operating simultaneously. Look at this realistically, not necessarily fully loaded. Using a VOM, measure the 120V of each phase-to-neutral coming into the panel. Measure at nominal load ( just house lights etc.) compared to heavily loaded. If your lines aren't sagging too much (say 117V no load down to 115 heavy load) then the 60 amp service is adequate. Otherwise if you see a lot of voltage drop then your utility drop probably needs upgrading to 100 amp or 200